Telecom major Airtel on Wednesday filed an application seeking the recalculation of its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues as it has already shelled out Rs 18,000 crore towards the arrears and now wants a fresh appraisal of the dues.

In its application, which is yet to be formally listed for hearing, Airtel has pleaded that while passing the judgment in October last year and the subsequent direction in September this year, the apex court bench led by Justice Arun Mishra (since retired) had failed to consider several crucial contentions raised by the telecom companies.

“Payments made weren’t factored in by the DoT while raising demands for the circle/year. Duplication in revenue by adding it twice from different audit reports led to a rise in AGR dues,” the application had said.

Airtel has claimed errors of omission/commission and incorrect interest rate to raise demands for spectrum usage charge (SUC) led to a rise in AGR dues.

According to Bharti Airtel, it had already paid Rs 18,000 crore out of its Rs 44,000-crore AGR dues calculated by the DoT but wanted a recalculations in view of certain wrong assessments made by the DoT.

In October 2019, the apex court had rejected a batch of petitions filed by various telecom companies and insisted that they must together pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in arrears to the government as AGR dues.

However, subsequently in September last year the apex court, following a batch of fresh applications, allowed the telecom operators to pay the annual gross revenue (AGR) dues over a 10-year period.

It had directed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to decide within two months whether the telcos can resort to insolvency proceedings to avoid payment of AGR dues and whether financial creditors can lay a claim over the spectrum dues to government.

The modified order was passed in September last year as the telcos had sought a recall of the October 2019 order on the ground that payment of Rs 1.47 lakh crore AGR dues in one go would lead to their bankruptcy and had instead sought a 20-30-year staggered payment schedule.

The Centre and the DoT, while citing possible massive disruption in telecom services, had urged the apex court to grant a 20-year period for the payment of dues.